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AURORA, Colo. (CBS4)– A five-year-old boy was found wandering in frigid weather a mile from his home after he got on and off the wrong school bus.

When school let out at Altura Elementary on Monday, Noreal got on the wrong bus. That bus dropped him off near Colfax and Laredo, about a mile from his house.

“I just started to walk home,” said Noreal.

When his dad didn’t see him at the bus stop, he called his wife at work.

“I didn’t know what to think. I was scared,” said Carmen Betancourt.

A couple saw Noreal walking alone in temperatures barely above zero; it was only three degrees when he got off the bus. At one point Noreal took off his shoe because it had filled up with snow. Those good Samaritans took him home.

“This mom came and grabbed me because I was freezing,” said Noreal.

“I think they saved my son’s life. If they wouldn’t have found him how would we have found him out there?” said Betancourt.

In a written statement the Aurora Public School District responded, “Student safety is a top priority in Aurora Public Schools and we take the situation very seriously. We apologize to our student and his family and we are thankful our student is safe.”

(credit: CBS)

Betancourt said her son should have never been left off that bus, “Something needs to be done. There can’t be errors in the system like this.”

The district’s bus drivers are not mandated to keep kindergarteners on the bus even if parents are not at the drop off stop. The superintendent said an investigation is under way to make sure this never happens again.

As for Noreal’s parents, they want to find those good samaritans to thank them in person.